COLOMBO, Jan 10 (Reuters): Sri Lankan central bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal resigned on Friday after his close ally, Mahinda Rajapaksa, lost his bid to be re-elected as Sri Lankan president for a third term.
"I have tendered my resignation to pave the way for the new president to choose a new governor," Cabraal told Reuters.
Rajapaksa was beaten by opposition challenger Maithripala Sirisena, ending a decade of rule that critics said had become increasingly authoritarian and marred by nepotism and corruption.
The central bank governor is a political appointee, although Cabraal, governor since 2006, had not necessarily been expected to step down so soon.
Under Cabraal, Sri Lanka achieved an annual average growth rate of 6.8 per cent for an economy now worth $76 billion a year, and the inflation rate remained in single digits for more than 70 straight months.
Some independent economists and opposition politicians say some macroeconomic data have been massaged in recent years to present a rosier picture and so attract investors and lower rates on foreign loans. Cabraal rejects those allegations.
Cabraal started Sri Lanka's sovereign borrowing programme in 2007 and led many loan negotiations with China, Sri Lanka's main lender under Rajapaksa.
Sirisena, who was sworn in as president on Friday, has promised handouts, salary hikes and tax reductions.
The rating agency Standard & Poor's said Sirisena's election could make policy more uncertain after relative stability under Rajapaksa as the new president's coalition partners have not agreed on a common approach to economic policy.
"Depending on political developments under the new president and possible changes in fiscal and economic policies, some credit metrics could weaken over the next two to three years," it said in a statement.
